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Windows 8 Launch Discussion
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Join Date:Posts: 10280
XP licenses upgraded to Vista? LOL
Millions Vista machines have been upgraded to to XP. In fact, most OEMs offered free XP licenses with their Vista computers within a week, when their hotlines couldn't handle the sh*tstorm anymore.
Well, since Vista is the next release of Windows after XP and can, contrary to the widely-held belief of uninformed twits, be made to run quite decently on adequate hardware, then yes, XP to Vista would be an upgrade.
What you're alluding to is the last-minute drop in the minimum requirements that MS agreed under pressure from Intel, who had a bunch of motherboards aimed at the OEM market using Intel's integrated graphics chipset which would have been rendered useless if they weren't certified to run Vista. So it wasn't so much a problem of ZOMG VISTA IS TEH SUXXOR (at least, any more so than it was with XP, which despite its current position as Holy of Holies amongst certain folks was an unusable piece of garbage for the first year of its life until SP1 came along and fixed things like actually bringing along the native USB 2.0 support that was promised for launch day) so much as it was a problem of the OS being certified to run on hardware that couldn't handle it.
Yes, it takes a lot more tinkering than it should to make Vista run at its best, but then again if you want XP to run at its best you have to know to do things like turning off some of the unnecessary desktop shinies or ensure that Windows Desktop Search and its horrible disk indexing service aren't installed.
Can we please drop the "bickering like 5-year-olds" stuff and get back to talking about Windows 8? If you don't like the sales patter, that's fine - substantiate your arguments and cite sources for your figures. Nobody's interested in seeing this thread derailed into yet another "Vista? More like Fista, AMIRITE?" argument.0 -
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Well, since Vista is the next release of Windows after XP and can, contrary to the widely-held belief of uninformed twits, be made to run quite decently on adequate hardware, then yes, XP to Vista would be an upgrade.
What you're alluding to is the last-minute drop in the minimum requirements that MS agreed under pressure from Intel, who had a bunch of motherboards aimed at the OEM market using Intel's integrated graphics chipset which would have been rendered useless if they weren't certified to run Vista. So it wasn't so much a problem of ZOMG VISTA IS TEH SUXXOR (at least, any more so than it was with XP, which despite its current position as Holy of Holies amongst certain folks was an unusable piece of garbage for the first year of its life until SP1 came along and fixed things like actually bringing along the native USB 2.0 support that was promised for launch day) so much as it was a problem of the OS being certified to run on hardware that couldn't handle it.
Yes, it takes a lot more tinkering than it should to make Vista run at its best, but then again if you want XP to run at its best you have to know to do things like turning off some of the unnecessary desktop shinies or ensure that Windows Desktop Search and its horrible disk indexing service aren't installed.
Can we please drop the "bickering like 5-year-olds" stuff and get back to talking about Windows 8? If you don't like the sales patter, that's fine - substantiate your arguments and cite sources for your figures. Nobody's interested in seeing this thread derailed into yet another "Vista? More like Fista, AMIRITE?" argument.
We know why Microsoft has ditched a pretty much ready-to-be-released OS (which is still being used by some enthusiasts, if you look hard enough you can still find it out there) and went back to the drawing board to come up what is known as Vista. Of course, when properly tweaked Vista works just fine but the out-of-the-box experience on mainstream hardware of the day was quite appalling and stunts like Mojave didn't do Microsoft's reputation much good.
As for XP, you're spot on there. Prior to SP1, XP was riddled with bugs and shortcomings and few were compelled to upgrade from Windows 2000 (which never really was a consumer OS). On the other hand, they must have done something right, if an operating system enjoys support for 13 years (18, if you count the embedded version). 0 -
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Join Date:Posts: 10280
We know why Microsoft has ditched a pretty much ready-to-be-released OS (which is still being used by some enthusiasts, if you look hard enough you can still find it out there) and went back to the drawing board to come up what is known as Vista. Of course, when properly tweaked Vista works just fine but the out-of-the-box experience on mainstream hardware of the day was quite appalling and stunts like Mojave didn't do Microsoft's reputation much good.
As for XP, you're spot on there. Prior to SP1, XP was riddled with bugs and shortcomings and few were compelled to upgrade from Windows 2000 (which never really was a consumer OS). On the other hand, they must have done something right, if an operating system enjoys support for 13 years (18, if you count the embedded version).
What they did "right" was delay the release of the replacement and, thanks to short-sighted changes at Intel's request, make any notion of switching from XP to Vista for those who didn't care (ie non-gamers/casual users for whom things like a new iteration of DirectX wouldn't be a compelling upgrade rationale) seem like A Bad Idea (and, since those people are also the ones who don't know about tech and therefore didn't realise that the exact same issue had happened with XP on release, the narrative that most people think of about XP is that it is The One True Windows).
Which is, of course, bollocks. I didn't make the move to XP at home until SP2, because I felt about Win2K at the time the exact same way so many people do about XP now. The difference is that I had an awareness that this was not a new problem (I'd used 95, 98 and even Me preinstalled on a machine - and weirdly enough despite being an OEM preinstall on modest hardware it ran much better than most Me installs were reported to - though that changed when I had to replace a hard drive and reinstall. But I digress...).
I'm disappointed that they ditched so much of the stuff that they were aiming for with Longhorn and replaced it with Vista, particularly the underpinnings that were clearly aimed at integrating DRM to cosy up to large media publishing operations (eg the cut & paste issues that plagued Vista SP0).
That being said, they are still trying to move forward. I have concerns about the Windows Store, but can see ways in which it may be beneficial. I can see certain elements of how having a roaming profile associated with your live account may be compelling to some folks (not for me though). They're making moves with things like Storage Spaces, and WinRT, and I think those are good moves that will make Windows a better OS going forward.0 -
I'm disappointed that they ditched so much of the stuff that they were aiming for with Longhorn and replaced it with Vista, particularly the underpinnings that were clearly aimed at integrating DRM to cosy up to large media publishing operations
There was that alright. It certainly stirred up much of the hatred for Vista (Really? You promised us this and now you give us that?). When they put Longhorn to rest in 2005 the disappointment was huge and once the reasons became apparent, Vista was pretty much doomed before it was even released.
Edit: Just read the Wiki on Longhorn and how it evolved into Vista. Funny, how they don't mention DRM and Microsoft's kowtow at all. It reads like the smoothest development ever, unanimously supported by a great community.
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I know its a very slim chance, but anyone able to tell me if this laptop will run windows 8? I don't really have a clue what half the letters mean . . .
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I know its a very slim chance, but anyone able to tell me if this laptop will run windows 8? I don't really have a clue what half the letters mean . . .
It will run but you may have two issues. First is that you've probably only got 512MB or 1GB of RAM, get it up to 2GB if you can. Secondly, the screen resolution on these netbooks is too low for the new Windows 8 apps. There are some hacks to get around this but I haven't tried any.0 -
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Anyone else find their internet speeds, both over lan and wireless, to become a lot slower since upgrading to windows 8?
Windows 8 monitoring the system and sending information to Microsoft takes its toll on your bandwidth but it's all for your own good, you needn't worry.
I haven't noticed any difference in speed (LAN connection) but the problem is not uncommon, probably a driver issue.0 -
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Join Date:Posts: 10280
Windows 8 monitoring the system and sending information to Microsoft takes its toll on your bandwidth but it's all for your own good, you needn't worry.
You're like a dog with a tinfoil hatbone on this one, aren't you? :P
On another note, I've got a new partition with a Win 8 Pro licence installed. I'm forcing myself not to use Classic Shell and not particularly enjoying it, but let's see how I feel about that in two weeks time...(no different, I'll bet, but I may as well use the absence of Classic Shell as an incentive to learn the new keyboard shortcuts).0 -
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I got the final version of 8 on Friday. The disappointing thing for me on it is that none of the Metro apps, bar Store, can connect to the internet with eircom broadband. Kind of ruins the '8' experience. If anyone has any ideas on what to do (other than installing the thing again
) let me know.
The other bug I've found is it doesn't recognise Norton Internet Security 2013 and keeps telling me turn it on, even when it is on.
Other than those problems not too bad.0 -
Try it without Norton enabled, or installed, just to rule it out. I have seen issues with connectivity and Norton before (usually on long expired subscriptions) and this being new stuff for Norton and Windows, there might be a conflict.I got the final version of 8 on Friday. The disappointing thing for me on it is that none of the Metro apps, bar Store, can connect to the internet with eircom broadband. Kind of ruins the '8' experience. If anyone has any ideas on what to do (other than installing the thing again ) let me know.
The other bug I've found is it doesn't recognise Norton Internet Security 2013 and keeps telling me turn it on, even when it is on.
Other than those problems not too bad.
Please start oneIs there a recommended metro apps thread somewhere?
Haven't played with many myself, haven't gotten my full license from MSFT yet and the release preview selection is only a couple hundred apps. For the most part I just use whats already on there, but I'd like a more powerful PDF reader, preferably something with copy and paste functionality.
There was this app Soluto that is well, cute but stupid. It's meant to be installed on old peoples computers so their grandson can schedule regular maintenance remotely, like an automated version of logmein that isn't nearly so invasive. But in reality it just becomes an annoyance to see soluto popup on your desktop reminding you how slow your PC is at booting up (it counts down until the time your system is booted up fully, based on XYZ), I suspect it of being adware for the SSD vendors. :pac: In reality I'm sure computer illiterate people would get a kick out of it and feel safer with it, as they do with most inanimate programs that assure them their computer is safe and secure. :rolleyes:
@Karsini UAC hasn't pissed me off since Vista, which was a horrible implementation of it, it's biggest problem was how long it took to load. It's a gentle reminder of when I'm doing something that requires elevation, and for the most part is a guard against my own stupid when I accidentally click the same .exe open multiple times.0 -
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